Bad news for Chelsea: Key figure suffers injury setback, set for three-week spell on sidelines

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Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger’s injury troubles continue as he is reportedly set for a three-week spell on the sidelines after undergoing groin surgery.

The 26-year-old has made 90 appearances for the Blues since arriving from Roma in 2017, establishing himself as an important piece of their backline.

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However, he has been limited to just one appearance so far this season for the senior side due to a knee injury suffered at the end of the last campaign followed by a groin problem.

While Chelsea have done well in his absence as they sit in fourth place in the Premier League table, they’ve conceded 17 goals in their 11 league outings thus far, giving them the worst defensive record of the top 12 sides.

In turn, Frank Lampard will surely be desperate to have Rudiger back in the line-up to help shore things up in defence, but unfortunately for the Chelsea boss, it appears as though the German international won’t be available for a while yet.

As reported by The Sun, Rudiger has undergone groin surgery and is expected to be sidelined for three weeks as a result, although as rightly pointed out by the report given he will need to regain full match fitness, it’s questionable as to whether Chelsea will see him in action for the senior side until December.

That’s assuming that he can now avoid any further setbacks on his road to recovery too, as he will no doubt be itching to play his part in Lampard’s first campaign at the helm with the Blues going relatively well thus far.

Chelsea do still have alternative options at centre-half to cope with Rudiger’s absence, but given the quality and experience that he brings to the team, they’ll be hopeful that he can make a swift recovery from his latest setback to play a key role in their campaign from December onwards.

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